Saturday, March 22, 2003

The Hotel Designed by Business Travelers

Courtyard by Marriott describes itself as "the hotel designed by business travelers." I've seen suggestions that it's more like such a hotel designed in the 80s...i.e., today business travelers would design in such things as high-speed internet access. Maybe, but it still seems to do a decent job having the useful amenities (food I can buy when my plane gets in really late) without the "nice, but unneccessary" ones like a concierge who will make restaurant reservations.

Of course, that leaves a question...what does such a hotel do on the weekend, when most business travelers go home? (Those of us who attend academic conferences soldier on through the weekend.) I found out the answer last night as I was trying to go to sleep and I heard lots of giggling in the hallway followed by a slightly louder injunction to quiet down. It looks like they court high school student field trips.

My suspicions were confirmed when I stopped by the front desk this morning to get change. They had a stack of handouts detailing their "weekend policies", which included quiet hours and the restriction of having no more than 5 people in the room. So here's the down side of not designing the place to be attractive to vacationers.